Sony must slash the PlayStation 3’s retail price in order to avoid losing sales to its arch-rival, Microsoft's Xbox 360, a gaming analyst has warned.
Jesse Divnich, an analyst at US investment house EDAAR, said in a recently published research note that the PS3’s $399 (£228/€292) price tag – which applies to the 80GB model - “ …

The PS4 will be as cheap as a Wii

The following Japanese web site states that a major design goal for the PS4 will be to shrink the PS3's ICs and so make it no more expensive than the Wii:

http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2008/0929/kaigai469.htm

And here is an (automatic) translation:

"As for loading onto ●PS4 the developmental type CPU of Cell B.E.

SONY [konpiyutaentateinmento] (SCE) next term game console

PLAYSTATION 4 (PS4)”, has begun real examination with the direction which is made the Cell Broadband Engine (Cell B.E.) architecture base.Presently, you infer the reaction of the game developer, you are said that it is the stage which searches concrete mounting.SCE, when in the PS4 generation production cost is lowered from the PS3 generation, simultaneously, seems that aims toward the road which development investment is held down by the fact that it continues architecture.

Also the possibility SCE leaving from Cell B.E. with PS4 being still left, it enters, but for the present, it is seen that it is moving with the direction which designates the expansion & the revised edition of Cell B.E. as the base.

SCE at the stage which PS3 project materializes originally, had planned the fact that it continues Cell B.E. architecture even in the generation after PS3.Betting enormous cost on because of that, it developed Cell B.E. as the CPU architecture which withstands the development which crosses the long period of time.The original conception of PLAYSTATION which is the Cell B.E. base was magnificent ones which finally distributed computing with respect to network were inserted in range of vision.

It is seen the plan of present PS4 is visible, in order from the fact that Cell B.E. is designated as the base, to be close to the extended strategy of originally PLAYSTATION+Cell B.E., but that inside that to tell the truth it differs completely.In order to hold down the investment to hard and the software, Cell B.E. it is the story that it develops PS4 in the base.Already if Cell B.E. and software stack on that and the investment to the tool which do enormous investment, it is possible, we would like to succeed, it is thought that is the aim of SCE.In current SCE, as the time of PS3 probably there is no sufficient room which does the development investment of the same scale, even in the following generation.

In addition, it is seen that with PS4, you hold down also the scale of the tip/chip, itself you face to the direction which reduces production cost.But past with PLAYSTATION of 2 generations, concerning 2 tips/chips of main, the die/di (semiconductor itself) approximately 200 squares mm the high performance of large-sized size, high cost you started with the tip/chip, with process refining the tip/chip shrank and you took production cost and the strategy which reduces price.But, it is estimated that in the PS4 generation, in order low to oppose to Wii of cost, from the first machine it reduces production cost with the small tip/chip, reduces also selling price."

LOL...

"Having multiple SKUs just confuses the customer."

Xbox SKU's =3 (Arcade, Pro, Elite)

PS3 SKU's = 1 (80GB)

LOL, is that the best you have to offer. Anyone notice almost all this crap comes from Eurogamer, the biggest Xbots on the planet (who curiously olso own gamesindustry.biz, where the other links come from). I wonder who their biggest spending advertiser is...

Who is the clueless muppet now? It's clear you are the one that's been manipulated into loving Microsoft and hating Sony. Pretty sad when you have to love and hate hardware companies to such a degree..

@PaulM

Another way to read this article is that Sony will continue to shrink the PS3's ICs and so make the PS3 no more expensive to manufacture than the Wii.

I would happily buy a PS3 to run Linux and to play games for £150. I suspect that Sony will be forced to bring out a new PS3 slim and lite before Christmas to compete with the XBOX 360.

I also suspect that SONY have a Wii style controller in development. Microsoft will have a Wii style controller on sale before Christmas which will put SONY under even more pressure to cut the cost of the PS3.

@PaulM

@Mark

Have you played any Wii games? They work better. You can't point with a SixAxis, because it's just the wrong shape. Personally, I don't like using them on the Wii that much either, but there you go.

The PS3 would seriously benefit from a price cut, but I doubt Sony can afford to very much at the moment, without further damaging Blu-ray players. Their current solution of returning features to the machine while keeping the price constant seems to be the only option.

@ Anonymous Coward

Yet another $ony fanboy displays his fear of his favourite console at being supplanted by the Xbox 360.

It amuses me at just how quickly the marauding bands of fanboys seize upon any opportunity to try and talk down the Xbox. Anyone would thing they didn't have any good quality games to play on their oh-so superior system and had to instead get their jollies by lurking on forums to criticise Microsoft and their console...

I must have made this point so many times that a google of the phrase must come up with a great many results, but as yet, no-one has actually answered the question -if the Xbox it is such a poor console, then why on earth do so many PS3 owners need to bother attacking it at every opportunity. Surely if its that bad, it'll die a death of its own accord. But oh no, it hasn't, and people continue to snap up the latest releases for it at a fair old rate. My theory is that these PS3 owners are feeling threatened. I must say that their brand loyalty is admirable, but their gullibility is certainly not.

And this is for the first poster - 'anonymous coward' alone - the disparaging remark about 360 owners needing carers it says a lot about you and your meagre cognitive abilities. I imagine that you'd rush out any buy an empty egg box if it had Sony plastered all over it. Grow up and encourage your brain cells to mingle with each other a little, you blithering prat.

It's right though...

that unless Sony either come up with some kinda games bundle with the console at the current price (likely), or take a huge price cut (unlikely due to how much they already lose on the things), they are going to come off very badly market share wise come Xmas. They are already behind on sales due to the Xbox price cut. Come the major buying season, the current credit situation, which is more appealing...a hugely expensive console or one thats £99 (as some supermarkets are now shipping the basic Xbox). Hardware, rants off fanboys, and even the number of games out are not really the factors. What will be is whats in front of the presant buyers. And the thought of almost buying three consoles to one of another brand, kind of massively skews the situation in favour of the 360.

Black helecopters as we all know, the black clad minions of both Sony and MS will come a hunting us poor followers of the lizardy overlords one day!

Two replies:

Until I see evidence to the contrary, I'm just assuming that all ACs are Mark in disguise. It would make sense.

Allan Rutland: "And the thought of almost buying three consoles to one of another brand, kind of massively skews the situation in favour of the 360."

For some, the Arcade doesn't make much sense; online use is a lot easier with the hard drive and headset. But, using the Sainsbury's offer, it's possible to buy both a Wii AND a Premium 360 for around the price of a PS3. Which really doesn't make it look very good value. Or, if you buy from Amazon, you could spend that Wii money on a standalone Blu-ray player and have all those HD movies that supposedly make the PS3 such a bargain.

PS3 overpriced, 360 overpriced

More Microsoft price gouging.

Seems not only can the Arcade and Core 360s not play many games online, or benefit from the DLC, now they can't use get the forthcoming NXE Dashboard update. Incredably, you need a full 256Mb memory card to use it.

The Core came with a 64MB memory card, therefore you can't run NXE without spending more cash.

The arcade comes with a 256 memory card, you can run NXE, if you never want to save any game progress.

Sounds like a sound investment buying a bottem of the range console.. The Arcades are so gimped it's beyond belief, to get anywhere near functional, you need to spend PS3 kind of money, but even then you miss out in Blu-ray and Wifi, and still have to pay to play online.

360 is a incredably bad deal, valuewise. You would be far better wasting your money on a Wii, or buying a PS3.

@AC, re: ACs

Until Reg ACs demonstrate more than one opinion (i.e. that everything Sony ever created is like amber from the Gods, but Bill Gates shat in their bed) there really doesn't seem to be any point in granting more than one person's worth in value.

Which is a whole person's worth more than /. ACs deserve. Most of them are bots.